ISHS Acta Horticulturae 371: VII International Symposium on Timing Field Production of Vegetables
USING MULCHES FOR WEED CONTROL AND PREVENTING LEACHING OF NITROGEN FERTILISER |
| Authors: | J.K. HEMBRY, J.S. DAVIES |
| Keywords: | Nitrate, herbicides, cauliflowers, cabbage, polypropylene, polyethylene |
| Abstract:
A range of ground cover mulches including black polyethylene, black polypropylene, paper and straw were evaluated for their effect on weed control in a crop of savoy cabbage. Excellent weed control was achieved with all mulches except straw where some weed growth occurred. The black polyethylene, polypropylene and paper mulches reduced yield at the November harvest by reducing mean head weight. By December, however, all the mulched treatments produced similar marketable yields to the controls. In trials with cauliflowers a black polyethylene mulch reduced marketable yields while black polyethylene mulch with seephose irrigation gave similar marketable yields to black polypropylene and to the standard herbicide treatment. Four rates of nitrogen fertiliser were compared under the mulches and these gave similar marketable yields within each mulch treatment. The highest levels of nitrate-N in the soil after harvest were recorded from the highest rate of nitrogen fertiliser and the other three treatments all gave low levels. | |
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